Neil Pendock on why Charles Fox Vintage Brut MCC 2013 is his bottle of the week
Charles is the Fox in the chicken coop of SA sparkling wine and the feathers are flying.
A swimmer who represented Rhodesia and Zambia at the same summer Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, after one lifetime making money in Johannesburg, Fox bought the proverbial farm in Elgin in 2005 together with wife Zelda and he's now in the bucolic business of bubbly.
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On a tiny pimple of a farm on a windswept hill above orchards of apples and pears, Chas is living the Absolutely Fabulous lifestyle of making your own fizz with French consultant Nicolas Follet.
Follet makes the stuff all around the world and you can taste his Gallic je ne sais quoi in each glass. From Oregon to the Overberg, from Argentina to Agulhas, this flying winemaker is challenging the palate of South African sparkling winemakers kept in business by weddings happy to serve too-sweet and too-sickly sparkling fizz.
Bone dry beneath a tsunami of refreshing bubbles, each bottle of Fox is a six oyster job. Don't forget to keep the Stimorols handy as champagne halitosis is but one of the many challenges of the over the top lifestyle.
With Fox News transforming Fleet Street, could this boutique bubbly operation in Elgin take on the colossi of champagne and their industrial refineries in Robertson, Franschhoek and Devon Valley? On the evidence in the glass, this wily Fox is far out in front of the pack.
Rating: 5/5 stars
Price per bottle: R230
Where to buy?charlesfox.co.za
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